The present invention relates, in general, to transmissions for automobiles and, more particularly, to an automatic transmission, designed to transmit the rotating force of an internal combustion engine to axles using the operational theory of a hydraulic clutch, and to accomplish a desired transference of force from the engine to the axles while automatically changing the speed by automatically controlling the hydraulic pressure within the clutch in addition to controlling the adjustable angle of turbine blades of the clutch in accordance with both the engine speed and the running speed of an automobile.
As well known to those skilled in the art, conventional hand transmissions for automobiles are designed to force a driver to appropriately change the position of a shift lever between several stages by hand while controlling a clutch pedal with a foot in accordance with the operational conditions of an engine and the running speed of an automobile. However, such a shift lever control motion in addition to the clutch pedal control motion is somewhat difficult to unskilled drivers since it is not easy for such drivers to determine the operational conditions of the engine or the running speed of the automobile. The shift lever control motion in addition to the clutch pedal control motion is also inconvenient to skilled drivers and is fatiguing to drivers while driving a car.
Therefore, drivers recently prefer automobiles with automatic transmissions to automobiles with manual transmissions.
In a conventional automatic transmission for automobiles, a hydraulic clutch or a torque converter is installed on the power transmitting path between an engine and the transmission, and so the transmission undesirably has a large size and a complex construction, increasing the production cost of an automobile. It is also very difficult to install such a conventional automatic transmission in an automobile. Another problem, experienced in the conventional automatic transmission, resides in that it is necessary to provide a large area within the automobile for the large-sized transmission.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic transmission for automobiles, which has a simple construction and a small size capable of reducing the production cost of an automobile, and which is also designed for easy installation of the transmission on a small area within the automobile.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an automatic transmission for automobiles, comprising: a housing filled with transmission fluid; a pump positioned at a first side within the housing and integrated with one end of an input shaft connected to an engine crank shaft, the pump being rotated along with the input shaft; a turbine positioned at a second side within the housing while being opposed to the pump, with both an output shaft integrally extending from the turbine to the outside of the housing and a plurality of turbine blades being regularly arranged around the turbine, the turbine blades being changeable in their inclination angles relative to an axis of the output shaft so as to allow a rotating speed to be changeable when a rotating force of the pump is transmitted to the turbine through the transmission fluid; a hydraulic pressure control unit used for controlling inflow and outflow of the transmission fluid for the housing while controlling a hydraulic pressure within the housing; an air control valve used for controlling inflow and outflow of air relative to the housing in response to the inflow and outflow of the transmission fluid relative to the housing; and a transmission control unit (TCU) used for controlling both the hydraulic pressure within the housing and the inclination angle of the turbine blades in accordance with operational conditions of an engine and a desired running speed of an automobile.